View Images by Folder Location in Photoshop Elements 10

The folders you create on your hard drive can be viewed in the Organizer. To change the default view, which is called Thumbnail view, click the down-pointing arrow, labeled Display, in the top-right corner of the Organizer window. From the menu choices, click Folder Location. The view now changes to display a panel showing folders adjacent to the left side of the Media Browser.

Notice that a blue card appears on the selected folder. The Organizer informs you that photos have been imported from this folder. If you hover the mouse cursor over the folder, a tool tip displays the number of images imported from the respective folder.

A folder without a blue card indicates that no photos have been imported from that folder. This is a marvelous way to easily organize files and quickly target a folder containing photos you want to edit.

When you click a folder with a blue card, the images may immediately appear in the Media Browser. If you don’t see photos immediately after clicking a folder with a blue card, click the Show All button at the top of the Media Browser area. If you want to see all photos in a catalog, just change the view by choosing Thumbnail View from the Display drop-down menu.

Now here’s the nifty part of using Folder Location view in the Organizer. If you copied files to a folder and want to import the files in the Organizer, there’s no need to mess around with top-level menu commands.

Just right-click (two-button mouse) or Ctrl+click (Macintosh one-button mouse) to open a contextual menu. From the menu commands, click Import to Organizer. Once again, the files are imported into the Media Browser window, and a dialog box opens, reminding you that you need to click Show All to see all photos in your catalog.

Using the Folder Location view and adding photos via a context menu is such an efficient way to import photos you want to use in an editing session, once you use it you’ll quickly forget about the other ways you can import photos and media in the Organizer.